SISTERLY BONDS STRENGTHEN THE GIRLS SOCCER TEAM

“It’s mine!” The little girl’s voice rang through the warm air. The sun was beating down on her golden, curly locks as the wind shifted her blue and white checkered sundress. It was the little girl’s older sister who was standing next to her and to whom the words were aimed. Judging by her scarlet cheeks, she had heard them. The older sister’s tiny hands clenched into tight fists and her brunette pigtails lay matted against her tempered face. A worn out Cabbage Patch Doll fell in the midst of the two. Its hair was worn out from its regular grooming. Its dress was covered in cherry Popsicle stains and a splotch of mud. In an outburst, the older sister screaming, “What else do I have to share with you?”

The answer was simple for the Austins, Johnsons, Kinneys, and the Wladeckis. A soccer field. It was no longer a grassy field with chalked lines. It was a field where the sisters entered on compromised terms and left their differences behind. The black and white jerseys they wore, blazoned with the words “Bishop Luers,” showed that they were a team.

“Michelle is a good player,” said Amanda Austin about her sister, “and because of our experience together, I’m familiar with her style and can easily anticipate her plays.” This attitude A. Austin has towards her sister, Michelle Austin is no different from the other sisters. Each had previously played together on a team, whether it was a traveling or a school team, each had come to recognize their sibling’s techniques. Hannah Wladecki considered her sister Sarah Wladecki as “just another teammate on the field.”

So do teammates fight? “Sometimes we beat each other up during practice jokingly,” states M. Austin, “We’ve never gotten in a serious fight but I do yell at Amanda a lot because she’s not too mature yet.”

The Austins weren’t the only siblings with their disagreements. Each of the sisters expressed their share of frustration and anger towards each other.

Despite their disagreements though, they have come to the agreement that they are each proud of the other. “I was really excited that Hannah made the team,” says S. Wladecki. S. Wladecki wasn’t the only one though. Each of the sisters knew how hard the other one had worked and how important making the team was for the other.

In the end, it was from their childhood that they reformed a bond and not just a bond for soccer. They have grown from the two temperamental sisters outside into two sisters with a friendship and a sense of agreement. Jenny Johnson clearly summed up her sisterly relationship with Elizabeth. “Elizabeth and I were the best of buds when we were little! We were the Barbie girls, doll girls, soccer girls, and biking girls. We played together all the time? As we have gotten older, we have both become strong individuals. We have definite opinions about things, so of course we don’t agree all of the time. However, we are still a lot alike, and we have many common interest, including soccer.”